SPRING NOTES: On a rotten day for Cain and the Giants, the best development was a 9-pitch inning from Romo

This is going to be short. No sense belaboring Matt Cain’s awful day, his first one of the spring after allowing just one hit and on walks or runs over his first three outings. Bad days happen for starters every spring, and this is almost certainly a blip. Cain said he could never find his rhythm and it all snowballed, both for himself and the Giants. It didn’t help that the wind was blowing out at Scottsdale Stadium, and center fielder Gary Brown got a workout chasing balls to the wall. In the first inning, he appeared to have a bead on a deep fly by Oakland’s Alberto Callaspo, but at the point he started to slow down, he lost it in the sun and it dropped for a double.

It that kind of a day for the Giants — fabulous timing with the game televised back to the Bay Area, the opponent being the A’s and it also being investor weekend here at Scottsdale Stadium. In the Giants’ two televised games so far, they’ve been outscored 26-4.

“The guys to blame there are Kruk and Kuip,” Bochy joked. “Hey, we’ve been playing good. Sure, you want to do well when your fans are watching and we’re sold out here. It just seems like certain things are going to happen in the spring, and investor weekend we’re going to play some of our worst baseball.”

But there was at least one development that encouraged Bruce Bochy and should reassure fans — closer Sergio Romo. Romo hadn’t pitched in a week after failing to get an out, giving up three hits, two walks and five runs against the Mariners last weekend. But he was much more himself in this game, even though he issued a six-pitch walk to Callaspo. For one thing, he actually threw his slider, including one that induced an inning-ending double play.

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It’s clear Romo has been working on some secondary pitches, notably a changeup, but he hadn’t thrown hardly any sliders at all. And he paid a price. Manager Bruce Bochy said with roughly two weeks before the start of the season, it was time for his closer to break out the full repertoire, including his devastating out pitch.

“Even though it’s spring training, you want to get your confidence going, too,” Bochy said. “After a couple of rough outings, to throw the way he did today, it should do a lot for his confidence.”

I tried to catch up with Romo before he left the ballpark, but he was as fast out of the yard as he was on the mound.

Probably a good strategy today, so we’ll take it out with a little Dave Edmunds and “Crawling From The Wreckage.”

There was a bad sector in the new post, Carl is writing the thread to 0′s. The error code was submitted to the Merc and they will check for warranty status

Bapah

One of my favorite series is re-running on Science Channel today. “Firefly” Try it sometime, if you haven’t.

Bapah

What happened to the comments?

Bapah

CARL, Calling CARL They’re playing Justin Bieber music!

channelclemente

I think we can safely conclude, that was not quality start.

PerSpeier35

If Scutaro can’t go by opening day I don’t think it will be Belt in the two spot, it’ll be Crawford. If they truly envision Belt as a middle of the order guy then they won’t want to put him in a spot where bunting might be the correct play, or taking a pitch or two to let Pagan steal.
Assuming a righthander on the mound….
Pagan
Crawford
Posey
Sandoval
Pence
Belt
Morse
Arias
Pitcher

Matthew

I get that Pablo has worked hard and looks great this preseason. But, has he done enough to prove that he gets this 4 spot? Not Pence? No big squabbles, but I would have Posey 3 , Pence 4, and Pablo 5 for now. Big fella hit half as many home runs as Pence last year…drove in about half as many runs ( not looking it up, so maybe 70%…?) . I say that he now needs to show the results at the plate to earn the cleanup spot rather than just showing up thinner.

It’s hard for me to write even a short comment and this stupid faulty Discus software sheet cans it. It’s been long enough to get it right. You guys are great but whoever is supposed to get this thing right is a puddinghead.

Michael Scott

My comment posts at first and then is beamed up to the Enterprise.

Matthew

I am on my I pad via Xfinity service…

Bapah

If you reload you lose all but first four

Bapah

NO, Carl it isn’t working! Reload and you’ll see. I just opened this page in another window and same-o, same-o

PerSpeier35

I just think Bochy will go RLRLRL against a right to start if Scutaro is not ready. He always has Pence fifth, I don’ think that will change.

Bapah

Go back to last post. CC and I are waiting for company.

Bapah

Don’t waste your breath here it’s going to be lost.

Matthew

Gotcha…wasn’t sure you were saying what you like or what Bochy would do ( those may be the same anyway)… I just think Pablo tends to over swing in some situations and being anointed cleanup would likely be one of those.

Matthew

He has a breath activated keyboard?

PerSpeier35

I haven’t been noticing the difficulties they guys have been mentioning, just typing and hitting post.

Bapah

Hit reload

Howard Benner

Justin Bieber is a musician?

I thought he was a psychological, social media disorder/phenomena. . .

Howard Benner

“Deadwood” marathon on HBO.

And it’s raining in the 206. . .oh, the choices. . .

Howard Benner

No. . .they’ve gone the way of all 6′s & 7′s. . .

Carl Steward

I’ve registered the complaint to our web services. Some of you seem to be getting through, others not.

Guest

test

ClutchUp

What happened to the missing plane?
Diverted by design?
Terroism?

ClutchUp

Some other Merc Blogs still are using the sigh, older, better format…

ClutchUp

Amen!

Bapah

No, Carl, it’s just the first four that are sustained. If one reloads, which is necessary if one wishes to attain some semblance of logical and temporal order, then it all goes down the Disqus TOILET!

channelclemente

yo-yo. string.

Bapah

Ma

channelclemente

Ma ma.

channelclemente

You a Steve Earle fan?

Bapah

absotively. That is, if being on my iPhone, counts as being a fan.

Bapah

Ma’s ma

channelclemente

Ground breaking time. I used to see him occasional at Central Market South, off S. Lamar in Austin.

I was displeased when the series met it’s untimely demise. The crux of the writing staff went onto the ill fated “John from Cincinnati,” probably the most cryptic of HBO’s soaps. . .

But one cannot prolong a “historic reference” program indefinitely. . .

So, DVR for you today?

The depiction of George Hearst was a precursor of the ruthlesness of his son, William Randolph Hearst. . .

Howard Benner

Just love the dialogue. Elizabethan one moment, expletive laced the next. . .&, often the two intertwine, as if balancing precariously above Niagra Falls. . .

2holehitting

And I watched oh so many of those games pitched by Fergie on WGN. He was a top 10 pitcher back then if not top 5 having 7 straight 20 win seasons on a perennial mediocre team.

To your point, I like Timmy and his philosphy of not icing after pitching. Let the arm recover naturally. There is to much in conditioning and training these days. Brian Wilson and his physical fitness did not help his arm from blowing up again

Mark Prior of the Cubs was on Sports illustrated where they touted his conditioning and training regimen and form as be excellent. Then Arm problems that same year if not mistaken.

Go old school, see ball hit ball, throw ball catch ball. You can be big like Rick Rueschel but as long as you did your leg exercise you could pitch because that is where the power came from like Ryan Seaver and Carlton. The power is not from the upper body but the lower torso. That is what is unique about Timmy is he uses his torso for the power.

Bapah

So… there’s a 7pm game Tues vs. Indians (both full squads) AND there’s no coverage by either team? OK, Dougie and Estes are doing it, but that doesn’t count.

Bapah

Since it’s available on HBOgo, no need. Love HBOgo! If you have HBO, you too have it. I must have missed John from….

I thought the issue was with the producer and creator, David Milch. There was something going on that HBO cancelled the series over some disagreement with Milch.

Michael Scott

There’s practically no diff between the 4 and the five. Crawford doesn’t deserve the 2 and Posey doesn’t deserve the 3 by your reasoning.
This Is the best LU with the players Bochy has to work with IMO.
Pagan
Belt
Posey
Sandoval
Pence
Morse
Arias (presuming he plays 2nd)
Crawford

Howard Benner

Yes, I’m familiar with HBOgo. . .

Vaguely remember the Milch exchange. . .it would have been a decidedly ambitious direction to have the stage of Deadwood evolve into, say “the next generation,” following the core characters through their historical evolution. . .

Bapah

The only thing I might change, Mike, is swap Pence and Pablo, Sandoval doesn’t need protection, he’ll hit it regardless where it’s pitched.

ClutchUp

Per Carl’s dartboard avatar posts below and this email from Carl – “I’ve appealed to web services to take a look. Could be us, could be Disqus. Some seem to be getting through, others not.”

ClutchUp

We think ‘youse’ know the answer. Must be an A’s plot …

Bapah

Well, I guess that’s good enough for the Merc. Can ANYBODY hit reload and NOT lose it?

ClutchUp

What 4 spot?

ClutchUp

Lead Pablo off – then – he’d be outta the way :~)

ClutchUp

Dragon software?

Bapah

Have him go back to the “Giants Extra” headline and click it. What do they get when choosing this blog post?

Bapah

There WAS a season 4 planned, HBO or Paramount nixed it. Not Milch.

Vegas Giants Fan

No.

Bapah

Achmmnm, Perez triple. Colvin who?

Howard Benner

Ah. . .

I think it had something to do with expenditure. . .the sets were quite expensive & the legion of high profile actors involved all dictated equitable salaries. . .

As reported previously, Deadwood will come to an end after the wild-western’s third season
(which starts airing on June 11, 2006). Though the series was not
officially cancelled, the series’ cast options were not picked up,
leaving the actors free to pursue other projects. If new Deadwood episodes were commissioned at a later time, it’s unlikely that all of the large number of cast-members would be available to participate.

The news upset and confused legions of fans of the unique HBO drama. A passionate “save our show” campaign has begun (for details visit SaveDeadwood.net) which includes the suggestion
that HBO subscribers cancel their paid subscriptions following the
airing of the last episode of the third season. Contributions are also
being accepted to pay for “open letter” ads in editions of Variety.

Deadwood series creator David Milch
has said, “I am deeply disappointed by the way things turned out. (HBO)
felt like they had to make a choice, and this is how they chose. I know
they tried to work it out, and I tried to work it out with them.” It’s
been confirmed that HBO offered to greenlight a small six-episode order
of the groundbreaking drama but Milch, who has had bad experiences with
so-called “short-order renewals,” rejected the offer. “For my part, I
did not want to accept a short order.
We couldn’t have done the work the way we wanted. I didn’t want to limp
home. My old man used to say, ‘Never go anyplace where you’re only
tolerated,’” relates Milch. One source has reported that Milch had
already plotted the fourth (presumed final) season episodes.

So in essence, the reason for Deadwood’s ending seems to be a financial one. Milch is working on a new series for HBO (John from Cincinnati) and, due to that commitment, HBO didn’t believe that he would be able to return to Deadwood for quite awhile, delaying the possible start of a Deadwood season four. Deadwood is an expensive show to shoot and it’s assumed that the cable channel didn’t want to (or couldn’t afford to) pay the actor salaries for months while they waited for production to begin.

Creator Milch is reportedly doing his part in an attempt to save his series. He’s reportedly looking into possible tie-ins with casinos and theme parks as well as with the real Deadwood community. “I’m doing what I can,” Milch says. “Any financial participation could take the pressure off.”

HBO Chairman and Chief Executive Chris Albrecht has noted, “Not having a fourth season of Deadwood is not the result anyone wanted.” Fans and David Milch would agree and are making sure that HBO knows it.

Bapah

Sorry, CC, must be an innate mean streak. I’m bless.

Bapah

Oooops

Matthew

Yes, Posey does…his body of work still is superior, though I can see his at cleanup with Pence at the 3 spot…no matter, all are pretty interchangeable. And, I agree about Craw at 2, but that is a problem spot without the 2012 Scutaro

Look, if Pablo tears it up, I’ll be as pleased as the next guy. Just asked a question.